Medeski Martin & Wood's Combustication

By Jason Heller

Bubbling out of the New York jazz scene, Medeski Martin & Wood have always been a tenuous combination of anachronism and vision. They don't play jazz per se. The organ-bass-drums trio throws down a Meters-like N'awlins groove and paints it with full-sounding flourishes of jazz improvisation. It doesn't quite qualify as funk, but MMW draws as much from '70s funk as it does from Charles Mingus. Maybe you could call it a funkier version of the type of soul-jazz proliferated by Jimmy McGriff and his ilk in the late '60s and early '70s. Or maybe it's a jazzier version of Booker T. and the MGs.

But don't blow the fusion whistle quite yet. This band can swing somethin' fierce. On their fourth full-length album, Combustication, the group weaves its jazz aspirations around a forward-looking groove that's just as infectious as any hip-hop out there.

On this effort, the group brings in DJ Logic to work the turntable on three tracks. The album opens with electronic chuckling that gives way to the rhythmic call-and-response of organ and DJ scratching on the slow rave-up "Sugar Craft." The turntable jazz experiment is even more successful on "Start Stop," an unfolding bass-drums vamp which could work well as a hip-hop beat, as could the abrasive "Church of Logic."

The album also features the group's trademark dirty organ funk compositions (with guitar and clavinet added for flavor). "Hey-Hee-Hi-Ho" and "Coconut Boogaloo" demonstrate the group's flair for mixing improvisation with irresistible beats.

The trio shows off its most innovative musical ideas on "Latin Shuffle," an escalating rhythmic loop which moves through piano chords and percussion motifs into a retro-swinging (in a good way) celebration of soulful organ outbursts. The album also features a slow, gospel interpretation of Sly Stone's "Everyday People" that will definitely make you forget about those Toyota commercials. Combustication hits its only snag on "Whatever Happened to Gus," a spoken-word beat poem over some directionless noodling.

With heavily rhythmic music--electronica, hip-hop's latest wave--dominating popular music more than ever before, it's not hard to imagine MMW's explosive, percussive version of jazz creeping up from the club scene and becoming the next big thing. (Blue Note Records)

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